Future Doc

This past Friday was Eli's white coat ceremony. What is that, you ask? Click here if you want some background! It is basically a rite of passage for a future doctor as he/she starts practicing and interacting with real patients. My good friend, Nicole, watched Tanner and Erin's kids so that we could go kidless. And it was SO nice to sit and listen and ENJOY! I felt like such a proud wife watching Eli get his white coat and hearing the amazing speech about what he would go through in the next few years as he works with patients. It was really inspiring! And I wasn't the only family member in attendance - almost ALL of my fam and Eli's fam watched via live video stream. They probably had a better view than I did since I was on the balcony and they saw the video of the students up close. Eli and I are so grateful for the support and encouragement he received from the family through texts, phone calls, and emails after the event. We didn't expect everyone to watch it! THANKS FAM - you're the best!!!

Here's his class thanking all their friends and family members. It made me think back to all the times Eli and I brainstormed essays for applications and practiced for interviews together. He's doing all the work and I'm along for the journey! Eli is on the far right edge in a white shirt.

The "cloaking!"

My brother, Doug, caught this awesome screenshot of Eli popping his collar - I love it!!

There he is in all his white coat splendor

Eli's med school class - UVM 2014

What a good looking future MD!

Eli and me in all my pregnant glory! I was wearing tall heels - I'm not normally that tall. And I'm not sure why I wore those heels when I am that pregnant because it was painful walking back to the car.
With his friend, Dave

The wifeys! I'm so grateful for my good friend and neighbor, Erin! There are a few other married couples in Eli's class, and I think there might be 2 other kids of students besides the 3 (soon to be 4) between Eli and Dave.

This picture cracks me up because the man taking it apparently really wanted the full tower in the photo!

Not sure why I'm including this, but we both look so random and funny!

Way to go Eli!! I'm so proud of you!

OH and you can see Erin and I on the news! Click here to see us at about 38 seconds in. We are on the left side of the balcony. I wish that our husbands, the actual med students, were on the news. Sorry guys!

Gym time with a side of chocolate fondue

I found a local gym that has open gym time and Tanner is free since he's under 3! It is seriously the most awesome place in the winter time! We took Eli with us on his Monday off this week and Tan loved playing around with dad. Eli can sure do more with Tan than I can right now! The first time I went, a lady told me to take it easy or I would give birth in the gym. Ha ha ha!

I love this picture because you can see Tan's little bum crack! Climbing in a foam pit is tough!!!
For Valentine's Day, we celebrated by having chocolate fondue and it was DELISH. Tan saw the marshmallows on his plate and forgot about everything else! OH and Eli surprised me with a dozen red roses!! He hasn't done that in a while, and I don't ever expect him to because it is expensive, but it was so sweet and now they are hanging on the wall in our bedroom.

I had to include this picture because it is evidence that there is a 2 year old in our home! I love it!!!

Get your craft on!

One of my nesting instincts as been making hair accessories for baby Kenzie. I have no idea why but I guess that having a little girl is bringing out the crafty side of me which usually is nonexistent. Ha ha! I have spent WAY way way WAY too much time looking at ALL kinds of gorgeous bows online and wishing I could spend money on them. To satisfy my bow making urge, I found tutorials online so that I could make my own! I found a random box of craft supplies I didn't know I had, got out my hot glue gun and needle/thread, and tried to be a little crafty. (It's sad, but I even dream about bows - seriously, it must be the pregnancy dreams combined with the nesting instinct!) I haven't made nearly as many different styles as I want since my supplies are limited. But it has been fun to try these out! I am really really itching to try this next: http://www.simplyvintagegirl.com/blog/index.php/2010/05/29/tutorial-how-to-make-lovely-fabric-flowers.

I can't take credit for the 2 actual ribbon bows - my mom made those and I can't quite figure out how to make them on my own! I have a particular style in mind that I want to try that doesn't have the tails hanging down, but can't find a good tutorial. So my mom and I are going to figure it out when she is here to help with the new baby!

This is my favorite and was SO easy! I really love the vintage style.

This is like a little ray of sunshine!

I made matching ones for Kenz and me! HA ha - I know, cheesy. But cute!

I need to find a cute little embellishment to put in the middle of this one but I like how dainty it looks!

My first attempt at rosettes. Hopefully I will get better with time!

I love polka dots!!!!!! (Courtesy of my fabulous madre)

Besides a few crochet headbands my mom got me, I ordered 5 colors of these darling stretchy and shiny headbands from Etsy: Here's a link to the Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/listing/66029716/new-choose-5-interchangeable-soft.

My friend, Christy, helped me sew this carseat canopy and I love how it turned out! I just need to add some ribbons and buttons to the handle part.

I am finally feeling like I can move on with my life and that I don't need 10 million bows made before Kenzie is born! I have many many years to make them! What I really need to do now is pack my hospital bag!!

Update on us!!

The last couple posts have been just pictures and our extended family keeps asking how we are doing here in Vermont. So here's a brief update about us:

ELI: Eli is really busy with school right now. He loves what he is studying and is doing well balancing his studying and family time. He leaves for school at 7:20am and comes home at 6:30pm. He spends the next 1.5-2 hours hanging out with Tan and I and then studies until 11. (I do dishes, clean the house, work on projects, etc. while he studies.)

At UVM, the students take one class at a time instead of multiple classes with multiple finals at the end of a semester. So he takes many "finals" throughout the semester, pretty much every 2-3 weeks. He loves being able to focus on one class for a while and be able to study it really well without having to divide his time (and brain power) between different classes and topics. It makes sense from a learning standpoint! He just finished his class called Attacks and Defenses and starts his Nutrition, Metabolism, and Gastrointestinal Systems section tomorrow. We love test days because he finishes around noon and then we get to play as a family that day. We don't look forward to tests, though, because he usually has them on Mondays/Tuesdays and has to study on Friday nights and all day Saturday. So he studies a lot but is learning A LOT!!! I can't believe how much he already knows. He is well on his way to becoming a fabulous doc!

Along with the class, he has time to practice clinical skills where he works with standardized patients. These are people who are paid to act as patients while the med students "practice" on them. Eli has his white coat ceremony this Friday and then will start going to actual medical practices to learn and utilize what he has learned in clinical skills. I'll post pictures of Doctor Morey next week sometime so everyone can see how awesome he looks in his doctor coat!

Between the 1st and 2nd year of medical school, the students have the summer off. They use it to do research, shadow doctors, go abroad, etc. Eli is involved in an organization called ITW which stands for Imaging the World. This is what the website says about it:

"Using a newly designed training process, local health providers learn to capture high quality ultrasound scans that are transmitted via the web to medical volunteers around the world. Within hours potentially lifesaving diagnoses are returned, offering never before available options for treatment. ITW’s integrated educational platform is essential in combating maternal health, trauma triage and many of the critical issues facing all developing countries."

The lady in charge of the organization is a faculty member at UVM and spoke to the students about the program in the fall. He immediately was drawn to the program because it combines radiology with public health - two things he loves. And they go to Africa which he thinks would be awesome. He met with the lady about getting involved and she wanted to involve him more than just as a volunteer during the summer in Africa with a group of med students. She needs someone with public health knowledge to write a document called an IRB, detailing the program and the benefits in the public health world. She learned that he has his masters in public health and needed someone to write this document. And there are other things that he can do to get involved more, I just don't really understand it all! Haha! He was surprised at the offer to get involved that much! He was hesitant at first because it would mean that he has to dedicate time to it now through the summer. That would mean that he would be even busier than just his normal "studying busyness." But, after thinking about it, he knew it would be worth it and has jumped right in! So from now until the summer, he is going to be writing the document and working with the team on logistics. Then he might go to Africa in the summer, for at least a month. I think it's the coolest opportunity and I'm really excited for him!! He gets to combine medicine with public health and medicine, and go somewhere super awesome. Tan, Kenz, and I will just go chill with my parents in Colorado, which we will all love. So everyone wins!

Anyways, here is a link to the organization for any of you that are interested (probably just his public health buddies!): http://imagingtheworld.org/.

SARA: I am almost 37 weeks pregnant so I'm at the end of this pregnancy!!! I have scheduled my C-section for March 2nd, a week before my due date, a mere 2.5 weeks away. YAAAAAAY!!!! I am SO excited to meet this little girl! When I was pregnant with Tan, I didn't want him to come until after his due date because I needed to keep teaching and finish all my lesson plans for my maternity leave. Now that I don't have to do something like that, I just want the baby to come now because I can't wait to hold her and kiss her little face.

The nesting instinct kicked in after Christmas break and all I want to do is clean the house, which is abnormal for me because I don't usually like to clean. Eli LOVES it because he loves a clean house! Another way my nesting instinct shows itself is in bow/ribbon making. For some reason, I dream about making bows and think about it all the time! It has really become an obsessive thing that I can only attribute to nesting because I don't usually have strong desires, especially during my dreams, to be crafty. But it's been fun to make cute fabric flower bows and little ribbons for Kenz. I feel like I'm 7 again and playing Barbie! I have found some awesome tutorials online for all kinds of different bows and flowers.

I feel a lot more uncomfortable with this pregnancy than with Tanner. Maybe that's because I have more time to actually think about it this time. First pregnancies seem to be much more exciting! I didn't really care how uncomfortable I was because it was all new and it all meant that I was getting a baby. I'm getting a baby this time as well, but now I just want the actual baby and not the pregnancy pain! Ha ha ha! Anyways, I'm at the end - Hooray! I'm also excited to not be nauseous anymore and not have to take a sleeping pill everyday for my nausea. That will be nice!

TAN: He is such a spunky, energetic, and fun little guy. I'm just amazed at how much he knows at the mere age of 2! They grow up SUPER fast - it's crazy! He loves to play at "Tanner's house" and really can entertain himself all day with his toys. He is pretty good at playing alone so I spend my days playing off and on with him while I get other things done (and relax my pregnant body on the couch). He LOVES to sing and definitely has inherited Eli and my love and ear for music! He can often sing on tune and he picks up words to songs very quickly. It's so fun to watch! And he uses everything as a microphone and knows that a microphone makes your voice louder. Ha ha ha! We have to talk often about beautiful singing, not screaming singing. He loves to play with "little guys" which can be anything from playmobil people to game pieces for a board game. He likes to use them for imaginary play and I love watching him learn how to pretend. I could go on and on and on about him and how stinkin' cute he is! He is my little sunshine and is Eli's besty bud. I'll really miss the time I've had with just him and am aware that life is never going to be the same again. So I am trying to make the most of my time with just my little Tanman.

Makenzie: I think that is how we have decided to spell her name. She loves to move and groove inside of me and I love every minute of it! Oh and her middle name is going to be Ella. It is a fusion of the two grandmas on my side: Eleanor (Ellie) and Stella. And Eli has a great grandma named Ella who was a great person.

WHEW, there's the update on us!

Christmas in Houston

We spent Christmas in Houston with Doug and Dana's little family. It was so fun to get away from the snow for a little while and play outside! I spent a few days staying with Doug and Dana and then we stayed with my parents, Kristie and Aly at a house rental right on the ocean in a city called Kemah. Doug and Dana don't live right in Houston - they are south near NASA since that is where Doug works. Eli and I got to have a night away without Tanner (my first night away from him ever!) at a hotel on the beach in Galveston. We had a blast spending time with my family. Since we weren't in Colorado like our usual Christmas, we just spent all of our time together and not split between friends and other things we generally like to do when we go to Colorado. We miss my fam and can't wait to see them again! We won't all be together for a long time because Aly is going on a mission and we can't all get together before she leaves. So Skype will have to do for a couple more years!

Anyways, since there are too many pictures to post here, I put them in an album on Picasa so that my family could download the ones they want. Here's the link so that you can see them: https://picasaweb.google.com/113216177353375523936/ChristmasInHouston?feat=directlink. There are a lot, but hey, it was Christmas!

S.N.O.W!!!!!!!!!!

When we moved to Vermont I kept telling the native Vermonters how much I loved it here. They always said, "Just keep thinking that during the winter!" Now I know why! We have gotten SO much snow this winter and the temperatures have dropped to below 20 degrees most of the time. But it is BEAUTIFUL! We don't see the sun very often and it is almost always very lightly snowing. It's like living in a snow globe! There are snowplows out all day. I've never seen roads be cleared so fast - it's amazing! There are even little snowplows for the sidewalks that are so cute. Yesterday, most of the country got hit with severe weather and Vermont was no exception. We got dumped on! When the sun came out today, Tan and I braved the massive amounts of snow and had so much fun playing in the snow! I must have looked so funny out there being 8 months pregnant and throwing a 2 year old into the big piles of snow and falling into them myself. It felt good to focus on something fun instead of how uncomfortable my body is starting to feel. Here are some pictures from the day:

Our apartment! SO much snow!

He's attempting to climb the mountain of snow in front of our house!! Good luck Tan!

Tan couldn't walk in the snow because it was so deep so he liked walking on the sidewalks where the plowed snow was taller than him.

Our street - it looks so Vermonty and happy in the sun!

My cute little snow boy!

I love how small Tan looks amongst the massive amounts of snow.

Near our house, the snow has built up from it being plowed into these piles and then freezing. I like to call it the Himalayas!

What a fun day! Now I have to go apologize again to Eli for letting Tanner's face get sunburned. Ooops!

January

Oh what do you do in the winter time, when all the world is WHITE and FRIGID?!

We do crazy things with our hair and then act crazy together!

We do fun crafts with our friends!

We takes lots of baths (this was after playing in the snow so some of the red on his face is due to being cold and some is a sunburn - oops.)

We read books and even learn about cool Book of Mormon heroes like Captain Moroni.

We play in the "magic" steam from the humidifier.

We spend time looking super cute!

We wear slippers around the house

We play with "little guys" from an adult game: We put them on our fingers, have them tackle each other, and use them as mini bowling pins.

We eat sweets like shakes, marshmallows, and hot chocolate (this is probably why I have the pregnant face and don't like having pictures taken of me)

And we celebrate birthdays! My birthday was at the end of the month so we had a really fun dinner/game party with our friends. It was my friend Sara's birthday two days earlier so we had a combined party and she made a super yummy chocolate cake! MMMM!

Eli made me breakfast in bed and it was delish. Thanks lovey!

We do lots of other fun things together that I haven't taken pictures of: dancing, singing, coloring, playing with playdoh, Skyping with family, playing with lots of toys, making forts, learning letters and numbers, taking naps together, playing in the sandbox, playing the piano, dancing around in the dark with glowsticks, visiting Eli at school, reading books, etc, etc, etc!!!